Cold and Snow

Do you like the snow but not like it cold? This is a recurring topic of conversation in our house. We all like snow, especially when it is freshly fallen and coats everything with a blanket of pure white.

When I was a teen, I learned to downhill ski. I enjoyed it and even was part of the ski club in high school. We didn’t travel to far off places like today’s ski clubs do but rather stuck to one for a weekly Wednesday night trip an hour and a half away.  We rode school buses, took a large portion of our food, and were ready to hit the slopes by 4:30 in the afternoon, just as it was getting dark.

When I met my husband, he knew how to cross-country ski and I knew how to downhill ski so we taught each other the one we knew. Honestly, downhill skiing is easier as gravity will always help pull you down the mountain! Cross country skiing, on the other hand, takes a fair amount of effort and is great exercise!  But, as we became young adults, twice we took ski trips to Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondack’s of New York State. If you are old enough, you’ll remember the 1980 Olympics were hosted in that small village forty years ago this very winter. Here is a podcast I just ran across that includes an interview with the Director of the Lake Placid Olympic Museum. The winter Olympics of 1980 sure had some memorable events!

But, I digress….maybe our visits to Lake Placid can be the subject for a future blog.

Back to the cold and snow…..

As we aged, we skied less and less. I took my two older boys to our local ski hill to learn to enjoy some winter’s finest recreational opportunities. My oldest learned to downhill ski and my middle son – now twenty – learned to snowboard. Our youngest has never shown an interest in downhill skiing or snowboarding. But, we have all cross- country skied and own skis of that type.

In general, we’ve decided by popular opinion that if it is cold outside, it might as well snow! The snow makes the cold worthwhile. It’s also much prettier than the exposed, brown, dormant grass, muddy puddles of slush, and dirty roadsides. Right?! At least when it snows, it offers you the opportunity for some enjoyment.

Over the last couple of days, we’ve gotten several inches of snow. Snowmen have been made, the dog has been walked, and maybe, just maybe we’ll head up North to cross country ski.  Hey – it isn’t Lake Placid but the Ice Age Trail in Wisconsin has beautifully groomed trails and they’re right down the road from our cabin. And, as a bonus, there’s usually more snow there than here.  And, as my oldest knows, more snow in Wisconsin than in Iowa, where he resides. He tells me that the availability of snow will be a consideration in the future when he’s ready to move again.

Yes, we all agree, if it is going to be cold, it might as well snow!